Saturday, January 7, 2012

Kickoff 2012

The 21st FIRST game, "Rebound Rumble", was released today. It's another bit of amalgamation from FIRST combining 2001's bridge balancing (Cooperative balancing) with the 2006 game, Aim High.

I was excited to see bridge balancing; our controls team has been working on projects that fit directly in line with that concept.

We spent most of the day reading and discussing the rules. Every student seemed to have a good grasp of the rules and a good idea of how robots could play it.

Towards the end of the afternoon we had a few students break off and do the kit of parts inventory, while other started brainstorming their ideal robot. During the first day or two is the time to generate any idea that you possibly can nothing is too outlandish. We had jumping robots suggested as well as an air-air defensive robot, I doubt either of them will be built but the ideas are good and they generate more ideas..

We did do some detailed discussion about robot features but nothing was set in stone. We talked about how teams will score and how many points we they will score. We also covered defensive strategics, along with a few other non-scoring non-defensive strategies. Just like in actual basketball there may be other stat categories to keep track of besides points scored, to make a full alliance.

Tomorrow we start deciding on the specific game strategies we will pursue, to get us the best results. We will also decided what parts we need to prototype right away and begin designing the prototypes. We will break down into our different sub groups and discuses schedules for when items need to be accomplished.

Overall, I am very pleased with this game which is rare. I normally have to think about for a bit to really start to like a game but this one just seems to make sense. I am not so happy about the fouls but other than that I think it's going to be fun to build, play and watch.

- Allen Gregory

"Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic, be enthusiastic and faithful and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm" -- R.W. Emerson